Thoughts on Satan, the accuser.

My dad proposed an interesting thought, that has not been fully processed and may not be true, but nevertheless, it is a thought, and a very intriguing one at that. It has probably been thought of before and written extensively on by some genius well beyond my own intelligence. In spite of this, I thought it could contribute well to the theological journey that we are all on. Here it goes…

So, in Isaiah 5:20 among the list of “woe’s,” there is one that calls out “woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness.” This seems to be saying that a particular group of people are deceived into thinking that good is bad and bad is good. Things, in this type of thinking are just plain upside down. A recent example, to go further, would be Hitler. He was able to bring himself to think that massacring a whole race of people is a good thing. Thus, darkness became light.

And it is here that I want to bring in a interesting and intriguing thought. Could it be that Satan follows this type of thinking? Could it be that he thinks God is the evil one and he is the one bringing truth and light to the world? Think about it, we follow the Christ because we believe he is the truth (comments aside as to what “truth” is). Competing religions (Islam, Muslim, Heaven’s Gate) all think that they are the people who actually have the truth. In reality however, they are in darkness. And Isaiah “woe’s” these types of people. If humans are capable of this type of thinking, why can’t angels be as well?

So let’s bring this back to Satan in the Garden of Eden. What did he say to Eve about the tree in the Garden? Basically, he said that God was lying to her and her husband. “Surely, God does not want what is best for you, he is a power-crazy creature bent on getting all the glory and keeping things under his rule. Let me tell you what will really happen. You will actually become like God, knowing good and evil. God does not like this idea.” And what happened after they ate the fruit? Adam and Eve knew good and evil. And so in one sense, Satan was telling Eve the truth. Now, obviously, there were many unwanted consequences that Satan failed to mention and this is traditionally where it has been said that Satan lied. But the text does not reveal that Satan could foresee these consequences. Could it be that he simply wanted “free” humans from the tyrannical power crazy Creator God? Could it be that he has some sort of warped sincerity in this scene? Could it be that he truly believed he knew what was best for the humans and God was lying to them? Now, take this to the scenes in Job 1-2 in the “throne room,” and to Matthew 4 where Satan tempts or tries to convince Jesus to join his side and, at least on the surface, this idea holds up.

In summary, Satan is out trying to rid the world of a god who he sees and evil and awful. This is not intended to be sympathetic towards this evil character, but rather is intended to show the deceitfulness of evil. It is so deceitful that even Satan himself is deceived. As I have thought about this whole thing, it seems to hold some water with just general observations about the nature of evil thinking. “Evilness” seems to never happen with intentionality, but with the thought of trying to do good. It generally seems to start with a wrong view of the character of God (bad theology). They have turned darkness into light and exchanged the truth of God for a lie (and God gave them over). Satan seems to be the ultimate represative of this movement.

So, it is extremely important that we watch our own theology and faithfulness to God as we live this short life. This comments on the incredible difficulty in understanding God and placing faith in him, which we all experience in following him It takes a special type of thinking and a special leap of faith to trust in the sovereign creator of the universe who likes to keep secrets (Is. 55:8-9, Deut. 29:29).